A failure rate analysis of complex vehicles

When engineered items fail, there are often indicators of decay long before the system collapses. This research explores this concept applied to complex vehicles operated in public transportation, and the results can be extrapolated to any vehicle system. Transit bus reliability data gathered from eight transit agencies distributed across the USA are analysed at a vehicle and subsystem level to identify system failures. The theory of reliability of repairable systems is applied to the in-transit data to determine if major subsystem component failures can be detected by increases in cumulative and subsystem failure rates. Results indicate that major repairs might be detected far in advance of when they are needed.